In the digital age, it’s crucial to have a website. If you have a product, service, or business, having an online presence is absolutely essential. Businesses as diverse as clothing designers and landscape services need to have websites.
A good website draws attention to what you’re doing and how you’re doing it. It gives potential customers the opportunity to learn about you and everything you have to offer. It gives people easy access to purchasing goods and services from you. Done well, it can give even the casual browser a feel for your brand and overall vibe.
However, for a website to work it has to be user-friendly. A clunky, overcomplicated, or bland web design can turn future clients away, causing you to lose business. While it can be easy to overlook problems in your website, it doesn’t have to b e a guessing game of what works and what doesn’t.
Fortunately, there are many easy, simple ways to improve your business’ website by making it more accessible. Using an awesome web design agency and some smart strategies can take your website to the next level.
There’s no real downside to dedicating a little extra time and energy to your website. Having a website that’s user-friendly gives you the chance to advertise who you are, draw in new consumers, and add to your bottom line.
Give Your Aesthetic A Boost
The first thing you notice when you visit a website is how it looks. Before you have a chance to read any articles, test out the navigation bar, or do any shopping, you’ve already experienced the visual impact of the website. Therefore, making sure you make a good first impression is vital to designing a successful, user-friendly website.
First things first, do you have a logo? Is your business logo easily recognizable and visually appealing? Make sure it’s prominently featured, so people instantly see it and connect it with your brand. Continue to display your logo on every page throughout the website to keep it cohesive and clear.
What kind of business are you designing the website for? The look of the website of a bank should be different than one for a children’s event planning service. The color palette, the font, and the layout can be moody, serious, creative, or original—as long as it matches the business it’s representing, you’re all set.
Make Your Content Easy To Consume
When you visit a website and are greeted with a huge block of text, are you really going to read the whole thing? If you’re on the lookout for some new clothes, do you want a lengthy mission statement right in the middle of your shopping?
Try to balance text with media. Visuals like photographs and artwork or short videos can break up text to keep things interesting. Use subheadings and bullet points to make your content easy to skim, so people can digest information about your business without having to concentrate too hard.
If people visit your website from their phones, consider how your page will look with that format. Will there be chunks of text that appear nicely on a computer but take up too much space on a smartphone?
Do you want to explain who you are and what you do? Put it in a separate “About Us” page. Contact info? Same deal. Organize your information so that people see what they want to see, rather than being bombarded with info.
Getting Back To Basics
A user-friendly website has to be, well, user-friendly. Getting around the website shouldn’t be a struggle for any visitors. The harder it is to find their way around, the less likely they may be to keep looking.
Is your navigation intuitive? Is it simple and easy to find? Make sure it’s displayed in a common, easy to access area, like along the top of the page or in a sidebar. Consider keeping the navigation options simple and clearly described, so people aren’t visiting multiple pages trying to find a specific piece of information.
Make sure you have a page dedicated to your contact info. What’s the point of having a website if people using it don’t know how to reach out to you?
Perhaps most importantly, make sure your CTAs (calls to action) are easily available to the viewer. Whether you’re looking for subscribers, donations, or purchases, a good CTA is one of the most powerful tools you have.
Step Up Your Tech
Lastly, it’s time to check out your technology. A user-friendly website has to have the right technology behind it in order for it to function well. A website without the needed tech will discourage people from using your site, while a smoothly-run website will appeal to your online visitors.
Additionally, it’s essential to keep your data safe to avoid any security breaches, which have become considerably frequent in the last few years. Implementing Data Security Posture Management (DSPM) can help identify and mitigate risks before they become threats. No one wants their data leaked, especially the user, so it’s better to include necessary applications, extensions, or software to prevent these inconveniences.
To secure applications or information on the site, a site owner needs strong and reliable SSL security like a RapidSSL certificate or Comodo SSL certificate that can be available at a low price. All these SSL certs offer strong security and data security, while SSL monitoring ensures their validity.
Using pen testing services can also significantly contribute to this effort by continuously monitoring and assessing your security posture, ensuring that vulnerability scanning tools are in place to promptly identify and mitigate security risks, maintaining the integrity and confidentiality of your data. Additionally, incorporating digital forensics tools can aid in analyzing and investigating security incidents, providing a deeper understanding of any breaches that occur.
How quickly does your page load? One that takes a while may steer traffic away from your site, while a speedy connection keeps people on your page. You can easily check the speed to load your page to see what you’re dealing with.
Does your website work on smartphones or just on a computer? Since people use their phones to surf the web so frequently, it’s probably a good idea to make sure that your site is compatible with smartphones.
Lastly, if you care about getting the word out on your business, you probably want to make information from your website shareable on social media platforms. Adding a button to share to Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and more gives you a bit of free advertising!
Keep It Friendly
The bottom line is, you want your website to accurately project who you are and what you have to offer to anyone who visits. The last thing you want is a poorly-designed website that distracts from what’s important.
Creating a website that’s user-friendly is paramount, and it doesn’t have to be too hard. When you design a user-friendly website, you let the business speak for itself and let the website draw new clients to you. If you make your aesthetic pleasing, your content digestible, and your tech on point, you’re sure to create a user-friendly experience.
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Written by DesignCrowd on Monday, November 23, 2020
DesignCrowd is an online marketplace providing logo, website, print and graphic design services by providing access to freelance graphic designers and design studios around the world.
